When I go biking during the summer, I rely on the frame of my bicycle to withstand stresses such as vibration and impact. As I speed down the trail, I think about the engineers and their process of designing a product that adeptly serves the needs of their customers. How did they test out the bicycle to make sure it doesn’t fall apart if the path becomes rocky? If the bike falls over, how did they make sure that the pedals don’t fall off? How do the engineers evaluate which loads can highlight problems in the design?

As it is ridden over rough ground the bicycle frame has to withstand not only the loads from the pedals and the weight of the rider but also the vibrational loads from the suspension system. The danger is, if the vibrational loads are at the same frequency as the products natural modes of vibration, resonance can occur and the bicycle could literally shake itself apart.

Some design issues are hard to detect because you can’t see them visually. The SolidWorks Failure Mode Analysis video series will allow you to figure out some of the ways to detect hidden flaws in your designs using SolidWorks Simulation so that you can avoid product recalls and save time and money. The video on Vibration vulnerabilities will show you how you can use SolidWorks Simulation to fix your vibration vulnerability by allowing you calculate resonant frequencies, visualize natural vibration modes and dynamically test for vibrational stresses as you model product operation.

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